


Cease

by Cake and Pi (Tarrin)



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Endgame, Flash Family, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Guilt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-11
Updated: 2015-12-11
Packaged: 2018-05-06 05:38:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5405063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarrin/pseuds/Cake%20and%20Pi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seven drabbles about the Flash family and Wally’s ceasing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cease

The vibrant bright yellow that’s Wally as Kid Flash disappears. The MFD shuts down. Bart forces himself to slow down, forces his feet to stop, his breath to steady. He drops to the snow and ice on his hands and knees and shudders helplessly. The past is supposed to be a better time. Now is before the Reach claim Earth. Before ‘moded’ and ‘meat’ and everything gone wrong and sour. And now is a time the Reach will never claim Earth. And none of what he knows of the future changes. All he’s done is trade one speedster for another.

* * *

There’s no time to stop. No time to argue, no time to figure out some other way. It’s the worst part about being a speedster: never being fast enough when it matters. So he runs and Bart runs and they don’t stop. And it should have been him. Him, not Wally, not his nephew who was so young despite reassurances otherwise. The entire world is at stake; one life for billions is a light fee. But it’s weight is so heavy he almost trips and falls and damns them all. He recovers and runs on. He won’t waste Wally’s life.

* * *

Jay’s lost people before. But most of them weren’t so young. He should have been there. To help the others, to halt the MFD faster… to take Wally’s place. He knows he wouldn’t have been able to do much. He knows Wally might have died any other way - a sudden car crash, a stray bullet - and it would still hurt. He knows very well the whispering voice saying it should have been him. That Joan would understand. That he was old and done living. And he knows Wally have felt the same, guilty and useless, if it had been Jay.

* * *

When Wally moved out for college, it took some time to get used to cooking for just her and Rudy. It didn’t seem right, there not being a heaping pile of dirty plates and bowls and silverware filling the sink. And now it won’t be right again, their boy never returning to raid the fridge at one in the morning. When Mary starts breakfast, past noon the day after they were told the news, she starts cooking as if Wally’s at home. Rudy sets a third place. Mary’s fingers tremble, and Rudy’s face is wet with tears. The food burns.

* * *

She gets the news at work. It’s a story she’s to tell to the cameras. Anger boils up inside; why is some coworker briefing her on the Justice League’s announcement about Wally; why wasn’t it Barry telling her? And she fears she knows why: she knows Barry would have done anything to save Wally. What if he had? Will she be giving this story again? But no, Barry’s in her hotel room when she gets off work. And from the look on his face, he tried to be here first, to beat the news. But bad news is always faster.

* * *

They’re at an age where funerals are becoming more frequent than not. A friend’s health failing. An obituary in the paper. Flowers sent to the funeral home. Recounting of stories, of memories, of times long gone by. Trying not to wonder which friend would pass next. Each time is distinct but repetition wears a familiar groove. They’re at an age where they’ve prepared arrangements for when they finally pass. They’re not at an age where they’re prepared to mourn Wally. Joan doesn’t think she’d ever be prepared for such a thing, even if she was given an eternity for it.

* * *

He runs and runs, and he shouts in pain as the energy crashes into his body. Barry and Bart are nearby, further from the MFD because they’re faster. They’re faster and Wally refuses to let the energy discharges hit them. He’s scared, and Artemis and his parents will never forgive him. That’s okay. That’s okay, because he can be here if it’s for them; he’d be too scared otherwise. He wishes he was far away, safe from all this. He can see through his hands. He still runs. One foot in front of the other. Again. Again, and again, and -


End file.
